Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1469840
with a personal intercom set that just starts spewing RF like a geyser all over the film set. Or the local EPK/ENG crew shows up and simply starts turning on wireless channels without so much as a hello. It can be equal parts maddening and devastating at the same time. In the gear department, it is critical that your RF hardware be of top quality and in as near pristine condition as you can have. Antenna cables must be in perfect working order and well shielded, and the runs made clean to avoid interference. Connections must be robust and of minimal loss. Cable loss must be properly calculated and accounted for if using powered antennas. And, if using passive antenna, they must be kept short. RF scanning and coordination is an absolute imperative. The spectrum is chockfull of RF energy and it is changing continuously. The scans used yesterday, last week, or last month can be nearly useless in some areas. The emergence and rapid growth of 5G is creating nothing less than sheer havoc in some areas, making wireless transmitters of all types nearly useless. Speaking of 5G, it is worth noting that even though the signals are running in the 600-ish to 700-ish areas, the RF energy is so immensely powerful and so ridiculously dynamic, that it is reportedly creating issues with airlines in the USA. So much so that the FAA has asked for a reduction in power output from 5G towers near major airports because of possible interference in the landing instruments of airplanes. While it is unclear if there have been any actual incidents or near- catastrophes, the fact that the FAA and the cell providers are having these heated debates should be enough to warn us of potential issues in our own worlds. In point of fact, I can name several specific locations in the Metro Atlanta area where 5G towers have completely crushed digital radio mic functionality in our legally useable range. Many solutions are on the horizon for us as PSM's and all the major manufacturers are diligently working on keeping up, but the simple fact is that all of us—at one point or another—are going to have issues with digital radios in our environments. How we deal with those issues at the time is going to be the deciding factor in us winning or losing the battle. Production is going to expect us to have all the solutions immediately at hand … and at no extra cost. This is foolish to suggest, and even more foolish to try to achieve. Just as with any other department, the location has much to do with the gear that is needed. No department includes contingencies for every possible shooting element in a base package, neither should the audio department. BUT we will be expected to know what those solutions are, and how to provide them. Simply saying, "I don't know. We can't shoot here," is not the right answer. We must be able to say things like, "I need my RF engineer to take a look at this." "We need XYZ radio system to combat the RF environment at this location." "As the FCC license holder, I need to have a list of all radios and frequencies being used for this production so that I can coordinate and mitigate interference among all." "We need to turn off XYZ items, they are causing interference with audio, camera, lighting, etc." To answer the opening question of "Why go digital," and further exploring the perceived frailties, the answer is going to be "Yes." Not because analog is dead, but because digital is so much more flexible, yet so much more precise. Analog radio is still a viable choice for places which have a very quiet RF land- scape, fixed installations, and low channel counts. But for maximum per- formance in a busy airspace with wide channel counts, a wideband digital system is going to provide far more available solutions. The key takeaway is this: Digital radio is especially intolerant of poor RF system hardware and work practices. An analog system will generally allow a lot of system faults before utter failure, and many mixers have been operating (perhaps unknowingly) on the edge of failure for a long time. Installing a digital radio package without making sure the rest of the gear and best practices are followed will absolutely result in frustration and poor performance. RF Explorer Pro by RF Venue Shure Wireless Workbench